Review: Iron Kingdoms Excursions Season One: Volume One
Privateer Press has released the first volume in a series of short stories called Iron Kingdoms Excursions that has a distinct release style.
Iron Kingdoms Excursions is a seasonal trio of serialized narratives with six regular monthly installments making up an individual season. Each installment consists of a single chapter from each of these stories, which is a rather unique method of narrative distribution.
The first season of Iron Kingdoms Excursions focuses on three separate characters: Colm Tanner, a Cygnaran Gun Mage working with the Llaelesse Resistance, Kurn, a misfit member of the Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps deployed to escort a merchant caravan, and Corporal Scyro, a Houseguard Rifleman stationed at Crag Tower on Ios’s northern border with Rhul.
The first story, “Gentleman’s Game”, is written by Will Schick and follows Colm Tanner as he infiltrates a Khadoran military administrative building with the intention of blowing it up. Colm is accompanied by Remi Arseneau, a Llaeleese Gun Mage of the Amethyst Rose. Despite being members of rival arcane orders, Colm and Remi have a comfortable, familiar relationship with each other and share a fair bit of banter throughout the opening moments of their mission. Part of this relationship extends to a game of sorts not unlike what Legolas and Gimli shared in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films.
The third story, “Answering the Call”, is written by Doug Seacat and shadows Corporal Scyro. Scyro is a crack shot member of the Iosan Houseguard Rifleman near the Ios’s border with Rhul. As the two nations have had little contact and even fewer hostilities over the years, Crag Tower is largely considered to be a cushy post with little chance of seeing actual combat, a fact that Scyro is all too happy to accept given that his wife is soon to give birth to their daughter, an extremely important thing considering that Iosans are waning species. However, when his unit is scheduled to be redeployed to support the Retribution of Scyrah, Scyro’s feelings on the news is understandably mixed.
The stories themselves are quite short, coming in at a total 15 pages in length in .pdf format, feeling almost like teasers. Since the first volume can be purchased for just $1, it’s an interesting way to try and get people hooked into the rest of the season. The prose itself is well-done, as one would normally expect from Messrs. Schick, Rudel, and Seacat. While I find myself urgently wanting more, I feel that this is modus operandi of the format. For those willing to commit to the entire first season, you can instead purchase a subscription for all six volumes for $4.99, saving you $1 and effectively giving you a volume for free.
With that said, I’m actually finding myself to be somewhat fond of this distribution method, feeling a little like a literary amuse-bouche. I would suggest checking it out.
Iron Kingdoms Excursions can be purchase from a variety of places, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and directly through Skull Island Expeditions. Watch for Volume Two to release next month!
